


The Dragons' Downfall

by DroppedAllTheseOreos



Category: Kamen Rider Build
Genre: F/M, Trans Banjou Ryuuga, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-24 06:45:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16634942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DroppedAllTheseOreos/pseuds/DroppedAllTheseOreos
Summary: She was the reason he joined MMA, but she never intended to be the reason he left it either.





	The Dragons' Downfall

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve only seen 12 episodes of Build and have no idea if and when I’m going to finish it, but my friends [MarineHaddock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarineHaddock/pseuds/MarineHaddock) and [@EmuHoejo](https://twitter.com/EmuHoejo?s=17) came up with this headcanon and I’ve been wanting to do something with it since seeing episode 2.

The first time he ever saw her, she was known as the “Dragon of the North.” Ever since her first match outside her hometown in Sapporo, she swept through her MMA matches with a ferocity unlike anything the league had seen in a long time. Her ability to read opponents and time her strikes was immaculate, and she moved with a grace that was rare to see. When she later revealed in an interview that she had a dance background in ballet, everything clicked into place, and people just moved on to other prying questions about her life. But Banjou marveled at how she applied such a different practice to her fighting. She was inspiring, and Banjou knew he had to fight Ogura Kasumi someday.

He didn’t start out as a fighter, his parents wanted him to study something practical, like accounting or computer programming. He had natural intuition and made it through exams with a pinch of luck and by taking what information was presented in the question and filling in the blanks from there. But he didn’t really have a head for numbers or letters. Things got jumbled up and confusing, he’d say 9 when he could’ve sworn he had 6 in his head or write things backward. Which is why he was able to fool everyone, even himself, into thinking that he was dumb.

So he’d convinced himself that fighting Ogura Kasumi was the most productive thing he could do with his life. She was fighting exclusively in the women's league but he hadn’t officially come out yet since his first attempt to tell his parents was disastrous, so fighting her was still possible. When he tried to explain himself to his parents, they got frustrated and confused and he got impatient trying to explain so they all ended up shouting at each other and speaking minimally over the next few days. Banjou finally ended the silence by calling them together to sort things out. He tried his best to be more patient and they all returned to regular speaking terms. His mother even started to hesitantly refer to him as “son.” But Banjou’s father was resolute on keeping things the way they were, encouraging Banjou to keep working towards graduating from college. He couldn't do much since he was still living with them, so all he could really do was remain bitter at his dad. At least he hadn't been kicked out yet. He poured his frustration and thoughts into Ogura and one day fighting her to keep himself calm at home. In between classes he’d always be out training, working himself to the absolute limit so he would be ready to face her.

Just when he thought he was ready, tragedy struck. His father had always been struggling with his health, and it finally caught up to him. Banjou and his mother sat on either side of his hospital bed, saying their goodbyes. He turned to Banjou and gripped his hand as tightly as he could. What used to be a solid and reassuring grip was now trembling and frail.

“I’ve been trying to find the words for this, and it’s still not exactly what I want to say, but it’ll have to do. I know I might not have always been the most understanding father, but know I am the most proud father to have a son like you.” Banjou choked on a sob. “I’m sorry I made things difficult for you. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to support yourself and I didn’t know how to accept such a change. That’s no excuse, so I want you to live for what makes you happy okay?”

Banjou held his father’s hand in both of his and managed a shaky “I will.”

After the funeral and a mourning period, Banjou immediately began his transition. His goal of fighting Ogura was shoved back into the furthest corners of his mind as his new goal was to become the MMA champion in Japan. He’d make sure to honor his father by going above and beyond what he was initially working for. And all the while Banjou worked towards his goals, Ogura moved into mixed matches to start sweeping in the men's league.

As the time approached once more for him to join the MMA league, a new problem emerged. Fortunately, this one wasn’t as drastic as the previous event, but it would take time. His name change. He hadn’t given it much thought ever since he honed his focus onto transitioning and training for MMA, now he was in a rut trying to figure out what to do. He poured over books and websites of kanji and names again and again, but nothing seemed to stick out to him. He considered adapting his dad’s name, but he wasn’t sure how to make it his own.

The blank space for his name stared back at him from the application papers for a solid week, silently taunting him. It was frustrating, almost as if he didn't really know who he was. At a complete loss, he tossed a baby name book to the side and flopped onto the couch and turned on the TV. And there she was, the dragon herself. Banjou watched her match, enraptured by how she moved. He wondered how he’d ever forgotten the feeling of awe while watching her trade blows, or effortlessly incorporate a twirl into a block to get up in her opponent’s space or arc her leg up and out to connect solidly with her opponent’s jaw.

The match was close, Ogura’s lip was split from a solid punch she’d taken earlier and her opponent’s right eye was starting to purple and swell. Both fighters were swaying on their feet, but Ogura moved first. She charged at the opponent, and he lunged at her. Suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks, grabbing his outstretched arm and using his momentum to put him in a judo throw.

The referee started the countdown, and her opponent put up a good fight, but his fatigue wore out, and he stayed down for the count. As the crowd erupted in a cacophony of noise, Ogura offered her hand, and he took it, the two of them supporting each other out of the ring. Banjou collapsed back against the couch, not even realizing when he’d slipped off trying to lean forward and watch more intensely. Banjou knew he belonged in that world, the wild pounding of his heart and the pure exhilaration at the thought of his first match being as exciting as Ogura's burned with that truth. And he knew who he had to thank for giving him the inspiration to even try this in the first place.

He hit the books again and looked for names with ‘dragon’ in the meaning until he found it. His name.

Ryuuga.

 ...

It was a long and hard fought path, but Ryuuga finally achieved his first goal. A match with Ogura. His winning streak was nowhere near as impressive as hers, but even the great can fall and she had lost her streak a few times at this point. Ryuuga had no expectations besides doing his best. There was a spark of hope burning in his chest that he could win, but he kept it small, so it wasn’t as crushing when he experienced his inevitable defeat.

The adrenaline made the match feel like it was over in mere minutes even though Ryuuga knew it went on much longer than that. They exchanged blows, Ryuuga on the receiving end on most of them, but he still managed to get a few good shots in. All up and down Ogura's arms blossomed with red and purple where Ryuuga got in some solid blows. And she was definitely favoring her right leg from when he sent her airborne with a leg sweep. Ryuuga was in no better shape, bleeding from the lip, one eye swelling shut and he distantly registered a throbbing in his ribs that would probably have to get checked out.

The two of them met for the final time that night in the center of the ring, Ogura’s shin landing square in Ryuuga’s injured ribs as he threw a punch at the right side of her head, no doubt giving her another bloom of red to match the state of her arms. He went down, and he went down hard. He struggled to get up, but the adrenaline was slowly starting to leech from his system and he was feeling a sharp pain in his side. After the count, he took Ogura’s hand and she practically carried him out of the ring.

When they were in the back getting their injuries treated, she started giving him pointers. He wasn’t sure why exactly but it distracted him from the pain as the medics taped his ribs and disinfected his lip. The way she said it didn’t seem to give off any bragging air, and he took it as kind advice from a more veteran fighter and as a distraction from what would’ve been agonizing pain if he’d been left to his own thoughts. But what really threw him for a loop and almost made his ears ring with how shocked he was; was when she asked him for any weaknesses he’d seen in her fighting that night. He began to stutter out that she didn’t exhibit any weaknesses but she cut him off, brushing off the medic attending to her for a moment.

“You don’t do _this_ ,” She pointed at the absolutely nasty bruising now blotting her cheekbone, “to someone with no weaknesses.”

Ryuuga shrugged, immediately regretting the action for how it stretched his ribs, but pushed through the pain to answer as best he could. “I mean, I guess I instinctively saw some openings and just went for them.”

She smiled at him before turning back to the medic and letting them apply ointment to her bruises. “Huh, that’s pretty good. So I guess you haven’t really been evaluating what went right and what went wrong in your matches after the fact then?”

He shook his head a little. “You should try to remember what you saw and went for on your opponent after a match. Learning how to recognize weak points and use them will only help you get better from here on out.”

 And after that first match, it turned into another. Then another, then five more. Ogura and Banjou deliberating on their fights and giving each other pointers for next time as they got patched up in the aftermath. After one of his injuries would need immediate medical attention and he had to be taken to the hospital, Ogura gave him her number and offered to discuss the match at a café when he was all healed up.

That first meet up slowly turned into their weekly routine, meeting up to discuss matches and strategies. Soon the talk of fighting turned into stories of their lives outside of the ring. He learned that they were pretty similar after all. Her parents wanted her to go into something more “befitting of someone like her” and become a secretary. Even getting them to agree to let her do ballet was a struggle. The way she talked about it made it seem like they tried to keep her out of any kind of physical activity. It was weird to him since his parents were always encouraging him to be more active, but he brushed it off as some family issue he shouldn’t pry into.

As the months went by, their conversations all went by so smoothly he never noticed when referring to each other as “Ogura” and “Banjou” had transformed into “Kasumi” and “Ryuuga.”

What hadn’t bypassed his perception, however, was how Kasumi was slowly wasting away. Her blows began to lack their usual ferocity, and she was losing the grace in her movement that earned her the title of “Dragon.” He confronted her a few times, but she’d always deny that anything was wrong. Seems the only thing that wouldn't dwindle was her stubbornness. It wasn’t until she collapsed in the middle of a match with one of her long-time rivals that she opened up about anything. And that was after Ryuuga ran to the hospital and found her sitting in bed, hands frustratedly clutching at her hair, an IV attached to her arm.

It took some time, but she slowly opened up about how she’d been sick for a long time. Her parents never wanted her to do much physical activity in fears that it would only aggravate the disease. The abuse she’d taken in fights from all those years built up and kept her body from recovering from the sickness properly. She explained it all with barely a quiver in her voice, her pride holding her together, keeping her from breaking down and crying.

Later, the doctors pulled Ryuuga away and quietly told him that she might never fight again since the damage had already been done. She was effectively declawed and debilitated. The Dragon of the North, reduced to a mere lizard in what felt like an instant for Ryuuga.

When the doctors told her of her condition, she seemed resigned and accepted it with grace. She was discharged and started looking for regular work to help pay the medical bills. She could only really take part-time jobs because she got exhausted easily nowadays. Ryuuga fought hard to get money to support himself and help her pay everything off. She tried not to show it, but Ryuuga knew she was in a rut for a long time after that. But slowly, she found her way to contentment and then to happiness again. She’d watch matches sometimes and get a sad, nostalgic look, but she seemed at peace with accepting the time she had in the ring and was ready to make the most of the time she had left with Ryuuga.

Their engagement was simple. They couldn't do much since money was tight, but Ryuuga tried his best to make it special. Somewhere in the middle of a typical date to the mall, Ryuuga bought something behind Kasumi’s back. He desperately tried to hide it from her as she playfully tried to peek inside of the bag for the rest of the date. It wasn’t until he’d walked her back to her apartment that he took out a cheap looking metal ring with fake rainbow stone inset in it and offered it up to her.

“We never really said if we were officially dating or anything, but, I really do want to spend the rest of our time together, if that’s something you’re down with?”

Kasumi threw her arms around him with the most strength he’d felt from her in months as an ecstatic “yes!” rang in his ears.

The happy times were short-lived, and the medical bills seemed no closer to being paid off half a year later. Kasumi returned to the hospital after another collapse, which set them back almost to the beginning. They were both frustrated as all hell. Kasumi tried to stay optimistic about it, but Ryuuga couldn’t fully get into a positive mindset about the situation.

After being in MMA for so long, he’d finally started to reach the top ranks of the league, and his matches were high in demand. The only problem was that he had to split his pay between rent and other things he needed to live before he could send the rest of it to Kasumi.

He thought he’d finally found his answer in some people that approached him after a match. They were sketchy for sure, but he was desperate, it showed, and they knew how to play on every weakness he had exposed. They offered him a ridiculous sum of money for one simple thing. “Throw the next match.”

This was a bribe, he knew it, and if he was caught, he could get banned from MMA for life. But what they were offering could pay off Kasumi’s bills entirely combined with her next paycheck. He hesitated for a moment, he loved fighting, and since he never got a degree, there weren't going to be many options for employment if and when he got caught and expelled from the league. But his promise to his father to “live for what made him happy,” suddenly came to mind, and above all else, for him, happiness was Kasumi.

His decision was made, and he threw the next match. He tried his best to make it look as convincing as possible, but eventually he was found out and he was banned for life. The shady men actually made good on their promise and gave Ryuuga the money. It was only in retrospect that he realized how dumb that decision was and how poorly this could’ve gone if they decided to leave him in the lurch. But it worked out, Kasumi could rest easy now, and Ryuuga began to look for a new job.

When they saw each other after his expulsion, Kasumi couldn’t help but worry that it was her fault. She shouldn’t have longed to be back in the ring and just settled in, happy that she was still alive and had a caring fiancé that was helping her in any way he could. She went into some talks with the talent organizations to see if anyone would take Ryuuga and help him get the ban rescinded. There were no takers, and she fell into further despair about it but kept up her cheerful disposition around Ryuuga.

Kasumi could tell he was itching to get back into the ring. She felt it too, they were cut down in their prime, and it hurt. But she had no choice but to give it up. Ryuuga had a choice and made his decision, but she felt guilty that it turned out this way. She felt like she’d ripped the choice out of his hands and forced him to give up everything for her. He deserved better than to be bouncing from part-time job to part-time job, hoping one of them stuck and turned into something full-time even though he'd still be unhappy with it in the end. He belonged in the ring. That was where he truly came alive and he deserved a comeback more than anyone.

She secretly swore she’d find a way to get him back in, no matter what it took. A few months later, she thought her answer had finally come in the form of Nabeshima Masahiro. He told her that Katsuragi Takumi could help, and had big things planned for Ryuuga. She faintly wondered if this is how desperate he felt making the deal to help her as Nabeshima detailed the job and how she was to tell Ryuuga about the opportunity. She resolutely agreed, they'd already hit rock bottom, there was no further to fall from where they were, right?


End file.
